S & T Notes - issue 137

A pleasant day for some gardening in the countryside with a big spade. It is 10.5 a.m. on the Thursday of S&T week and we have nearly an hour for the first digging session before the first train needs to depart.

SIGNALLING NOTES - Chris. Hall

I think the magazine is becoming more punctual- here I am again with just a few scratch notes and the Summer edition has dropped through the letter box - time to put pen to paper again! The last article was written in a bit of a hurry just in time to describe some faults that had developed. The faults were investigated and repaired shortly after the press deadline for the last article so I'll bring these items up to date before going on to describe our more recent activities, covering the period from early May to the end of July.

The fault on Bewdley South Down Main Distant had disappeared when we opened up the signal machine on 13 April but it failed again a few days later and was repaired on 6 May by Tony Neath and Adrian Hassell, the fault being traced to tensioning of the signal machine carbon brushes.

The developing cable fault in Alveley Woods became a complete failure in early May when the cable finally parted under the strain. A new 150yard length of cable was brought to site by train and on 7 May a repair gang consisting of Steve Bradbury, Paul Marshall, Bob Lawson, Adrian Hassell, Grahame Gardner and Ian Southwell cut and jointed the cable, removing the many temporary links which had been provided to work around the initial cable fault. A comprehensive testing programme, which involved the removal of more than one token at once, was carried out to prove the integrity of the repair and the token working was booked back on by the end of the day.

The failure of the drive to the yard points at Arley proved to be at the crank under the lever frame. The crank had cracked - but the crack was hidden - and the points had become occasionally difficult to operate. Finally the crank had parted. A replacement crank was fitted by John Smith and Tony Neath on 5 May and the points readjusted and booked back on.

The workload on the S&T department always seems to peak at times when a large proportion of the department are away on a canal boat. We don't all tend to go away at the same time these days so were able to resource the work despite some members being 'on a cruise'.

Routine and defect maintenance

Signing on at Kidderminster on 2 June for some S&T work, Dave Carr and myself found our attention drawn to a note about difficulty with number 60 electric lock. The previous day's signalman had very helpfully diagnosed that the problem was connected with failure of the electric lock on lever 25 to engage properly. Armed with this information we descended to the nether regions of the box and found 25 electric lock to be covered in oil and unable to engage the lock slide with the lever fully reverse. This is the usual two separate faults which cause a problem. Removing the oil required us to remove the lock slide, its connection to the tappett and the electric lock mechanism, strip everything down to its component parts and remove every trace of oil.

Reassembling showed that the lock slide was over-travelling by about 1/32". The cut out which engages the electric lock was widened and the equipment reassembled. Testing showed that all was well and we adjourned to Bewdley. Routine track circuit testing at North box nicely filled the remainder of the day.

On 27 June a problem was reported at Hampton Loade which prevented the Down Starting signals from being cleared. The investigation showed that there was a screw loose in the wooden case relay which maintains the section signal release - combined with the contact box on lever 13 being out of adjustment.

Other work has included renewal of the lamp cable on the Down Back Road Inner Home Signal at Bewdley North which had failed with a short circuit, machining of the reflective surrounds to be fitted to the road signals at Northwood crossing, renewal of frayed and rusty signal wires on the From Kidderminster to Down Main Inner Home Signal (no. 6) and the From Hartlebury to Down Sidings Inner Home Signal (no. 20).

On 5 July at around 0930/1000 'a subcontractor from Barnsley' drilled through a signalling cable on Oldbury viaduct. The initial report that 'nothing would work' was discussed with the CS&TE, who was on his way home to Cardiff, and was refined to track circuit 1AT shewing occupied when clear (28T was still operating correctly from its track feed battery, despite the power being dead), indication of the Down Main Home shewing 'wrong' and loss of bell communication with Highley. The light engine had been signalled normally but the loss of communication meant that 'train entering section' could not be sent. With no bell communication between Highley and Bridgnorth trains would not be able to cross at Hampton Loade and pilotman working on the long section token would have to be implemented.

At this stage it looked as if war weekend might have to be operated with a reduced service of trains. The earliest that the Department could respond was the Thursday evening when the location of the cable fault was traced to Oldbury viaduct (it could have been anywhere between Highley and Bridgnorth) but no evidence was found of the ground having been disturbed. The CS&TE returned on the Friday, having arranged for Kidderminster C&W to load some telecomms. cable on the first down train with a stop order to deliver it to site. This temporary cable was fortunately long enough to reach from the location cupboard at the Down Home Signal to some soft ground beyond the viaduct where the existing cable could be cut and jointed. The site of the failure was fairly obviously at the point where a hole had been drilled right through the viaduct. The hole was about 6ft6in below the top of the parapet, i.e. about 2 feet below the surface. The cable had lain at this level (rather deeper than normal) because the viaduct had been dug out at the time that the pole route was converted to cable run.

The temporary cable allowed essential signalling circuits to be reinstated by late afternoon on the Friday, so that the 4.0 pm Bridgnorth departure could cross at Hampton Loade. Two faults remained - the Down Home Signal berth track showed occupied and the indication of the Down Main Home showed wrong. The signalman was advised that the Down Main Home should not be used without a man on the ground to confirm that it had returned to Danger and that the signal post telephone was in order.

A team of three (Tony Neath, John Smith and Dave Beaman) concluded the temporary repair on the Sunday (8 July) replacing a fuse in the location to restore the feed to 1ATPR and connecting the two remaining cores for the arm repeater and the metallic earth. A permanent repair was planned for S&T week.

Routine maintenance is now planned in accordance with a schedule and this has made much better use of our limited resources and avoids duplication. Although the inevitable equipment or component failures will still occur, the reliability of the signalling equipment has much improved over the last four years. I should emphasise that we have about 200 working levers and that on a typical working day there must be hundreds (if not thousands) of lever movements and relay and electric lock operations which take place every day without any problems at all. It was interesting to read in the volunteer newsletter that a 'review of the S&T maintenance had taken place' as it appeared that no-one in the Department had written it. The CS&TE promised to share the report with members of the Department.

S&T week

During our annual S&T week we got off to a gentle start with our annual Sunday Luncheon on the Venturer. We made appropriate gestures at the Kidderminster signalmen (Station and Junction) as we passed, who had expressed a preference to work their signalbox instead of joining us for the meal, and then settled down to a lengthy drinking session. On the Monday Denvir Drury top nutted the cable terminations on Oldbury viaduct ready for the permanent repair and investigated the power supply to our Bridgnorth S&T stores, which we found is now supplied from the Pattern Shop and is therefore turned off when the shop is closed (but, it now seems, is still off when it is open).

On the Tuesday we were joined by Steve Curtis, John Phillips and myself and we completed the troughing run to the Boiler Shop Ground Frame location cupboard and carried out routine FPL and detection testing at Bridgnorth, revealing the need to shim the yard points at the next opportunity (this was done on 12 August and required a visit to the workshops to shorten a P-Way stretcher that was preventing the points from closing up once we had added the correct shims). Meanwhile Kidderminster C&W had loaded the cable drums we had identified onto the driving school coach which had been taken to Kidderminster by the Bewdley light engine. The coach was delivered to Bridgnorth by the engine off BS1 and taken onto shed to allow the BN1 engine to draw the well wagon (onto which a pallet of troughing had been delivered) out of the boiler shop and propel it to site for the troughing to be unloaded. Replacing the wagon, the engine then moved the coach to the Hollybush Road siding for us to load the following day.

On the Wednesday we were joined by Dave Wittamore and we loaded the cable drums used for the Boiler Shop ground frame location work for recovery to Kidderminster, with thanks to the Bridgnorth JCB for its assistance. We then assembled for a journey to Stafford to visit the no.4 and no.5 signalboxes as part of a trip organised by Dave Wittamore through the IRSE. Our thanks are due to Railtrack, especially the Signalling Manager, the signalmen and GTRM who conducted us round the locking and relay rooms. Stafford no. 4 box has a 105 lever frame, with few spare levers, and controls the south end of the station, working to Colwich and controlling Whitehouse Junction where the four track main line becomes double track as well as the double junction for the Birmingham line. It is operated by two signalmen who have the uncanny knack of knowing what each other is doing all the time only having to send subliminal messages over the occasional marginal decisions on regulation. Stafford no.5 box has a 150 lever frame, albeit with many spares, and is operated by one signalmen. It works to Norton Bridge Junction controlling the four track main line north of the station including a fast to slow junction

On the Thursday we were joined by Adrian Hassell and Tony Neath and we started at about 9 a.m. dispatching the JCB driven by Dave Shackleford to crossing cottage to make its way to site to assist in digging a shallow trench for the troughing which will carry the permanent cable to replace the damaged section of cable and the temporary repair. Two of the three cables required, a 12 core signalling cable and a telecomms cable, had unfortunately not been delivered the previous Friday and so the temporary repair will have to last another week. With the assistance of the JCB between trains, protected with the appropriate provisions of Rule 217, including a handsignalman (Dave Evans) in the signalbox to remind the signalman of the presence of the JCB, the troughing run was completed in what proved to be a very hot and exhausting day.

On the Friday we had arranged for the BN1 engine to be off shed at 8.0a.m. to draw the coach out to site to allow us to pay out the 2 core power cable and then to propel the coach to the end of the Hollybush siding to pay out two 2 core cables and a 7 core cable to replace the temporary 10 core cable installed last year (installed on the ground as the troughing run had not been completed). This was still working perfectly despite the efforts of the Locomotive Department to cover it in hot ash at every opportunity. The coach was then shunted onto the BS1 engine and taken to Bewdley with the class 52 for the driving school. The new 7 core and 2 core cables was terminated, tested and commissioned and the old cable removed. The signalling cable for Oldbury viaduct did not arrive until late in the afternoon and was laid out and terminated in early August just as the temporary repair was showing signs of breaking down. The final cable - a telecomms cable - was terminated on 12 August allowing the temporary repair to be removed. We hoped that this would rectify a fault reported that week on the omnibus telephone circuit between Bridgnorth and Hampton Loade but after a full day's work the fault was still present and will have to wait for another day.

Major planned work

A brief recap of the major work planned by the Department will give you a taste of things to come and illustrate that there is plenty of interesting work for the Department in the months ahead.

Bewdley North Down Main Home Calling On Signal - the signal wire run is almost complete and is tied off at the base of the signal, all parts for the fitting of the calling on arm are available and a printed notice has been prepared. The electrical wiring is mostly in place, as provision was made for this signal in the original installation.

Kidderminster platform 1 starting signal - the Taunton bracket signal is being prepared to replace the temporary signal installed over ten years ago and we are hoping to install this and commission the platform 1 side. An electric lock will need to be fitted to no. 34 lever to implement electrical detection before the three foot arm on the bracket can replace the existing disc signal (34) currently on the ground.

Bewdley South Inner Home bracket - the wood on the existing bracket signal will need to be renewed and to do this we will have to erect a temporary signal while the existing bracket signal is removed and and the main central post renewed with a new piece of timber. The new distant arm prepared for Bewdley North Up Distant (which would not fit there) is to be used to replace the fixed distant arm on this bracket beneath the From Kidderminster or Hartlebury to Back Platform Inner Home Signal.

Kidderminster Advanced Starting signals - in order to obtain the correct clearance for no.1 carriage siding, the present Down Loop Advanced Starting signals (58 and 61) will be replaced by a bracket signal standing in the position of the existing Down Main Advanced Starting Signal - the Westbury bracket signal is to be used for this purpose.

Completion of the work required to bring the distant signals at Bewdley North into use including a complete rewire of North Box. We are also considering provision of a lower distant for South Box below Bewdley North Up Home - a signal machine is to be overhauled and fitted, a distant lower banner is to be fitted, using the banner recovered from platform 2 when the footbridge was repainted, an outer distant repeater is to be provided in Bewdley South and the distant signal and fittings are to be installed.

Facing point locks

This time I'll describe the purpose of facing point locks. These are required to be fitted to all pointwork that is traversed in the facing direction by passenger trains and to be interlocked with the signals so that movements over the points concerned in the facing direction can only be signalled if the facing point lock lever is operated. The signal will not clear unless the facing point lock has responded correctly to the lever in the signalbox and this is effected by detection which proves that the correct movement has occurred. We are often advised of S&T 'failures' when it has not been possible to bolt points in place or where the signal will not clear when the S&T equipment is, in fact, operating correctly. There are a number of potential faults that will prevent the signal being cleared, most of which are problems for the Permanent Way Department. Examples of these are track spreading wide to gauge, ballast trapped in the switch rails, a signalman with only one Weetabix and broken or buckled point rodding.

In such cases where the signal cannot be cleared, the Rules prescribe for the points to be clipped in place and movements to be made under the control of a handsignalman who takes responsibility under Rule 78(b) for the proper position of any facing points to which the signal to be passed at Danger normally applies. A good example of this recently was failure to bolt 42 points at Kidderminster due to the switch blades standing high due to the diverging end of the points having dropped. This had been reported several times as an intermittent S&T fault and when it was reported as being unable to bolt the points we had to request attendance of the Permanent Way Department as the only alternative was to book off the FPL and clip the points normal. A rapid attendance by our P-Way colleagues made this unnecessary.

We are always on the lookout for new recruits to the Department - some mechanical or electrical knowledge is an advantage and the ability to work unsupervised with a knowledge of one's limitations is essential. Existing volunteers will know how to contact the Department but those considering volunteering for the first time will need to make contact through the Volunteer Liaison Officer, Peter Edkins.

Examining number 14 points to see how much shimming will be required.

Stafford number 4 box showing the south end of the station.

Stafford number 5 box looking along the frame to the north.

Stafford number 4 box looking from the high end of the frame.

Nearly complete at 4.20 p.m. on the Thursday - just the finishing touches and we can adjourn for a much needed refreshment at the Railwayman's Arms!